Remembrance Day

November 11th

The Kerala School Sports & Games 2024

The meet is on at different venues in the district and the athletic events will be held at the Maharajas College Ground.

For those tourists who like to meet the participating students, their teachers, parents who are from the different districts of Kerala, the event is a good opportunity. 

Take a customised tour with us, ideally from 4pm in the afternoon to 8pm or till the end of the events and dinner afterwards from your favourite city restaurant. 

The pick up can be arranged from the water metro Jetty and drop back to Fort Kochi in a car. 

Durham Miners' Banners

Durham Miners’ Gala

Solidarity forever! Banners of the Durham mining community.

Commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Miners’ strike of 1984-85 and celebrating the continuity, solidarity of the Durham Mining Communities a colorful selection of the banners from the region’s many Union Lodges were displayed at the Durham Cathedral recently.

Banners are described as the regimental colors of the National Union of Mineworkers. Banners were proudly carried at the Miners celebrations, protests and other events. Banners are made of silk and hand painted on both sides to display the name of their colliery lodge, along with other religious or political images. Many banners are still in use with their communities and are paraded through the streets of Durham on Gala day in July. They are joined by the banners of other trade Unions and groups linked to the mining communities such as the Women’s Support Groups.

The North East of England has a long history of coal mining. Centuries ago coal was used by the Romans while they occupied England. Mining activity is recorded in the Boldon book of 1183. Durham and the cathedral were at the heart of coal mining activity in the region, the industry endured for more than 9 centuries.

John Doyle’s ‘A cross in Coal’ emotionally expresses the sentiments in literary works of the time:

 ‘For here beneath dear Durham Skies live men, I understood, bound fast in friendship by the ties of pitman brotherhood…”

The Miners’ Gala started as a demonstration of Miners Solidarity to make their employers aware that they were united and would stand up for their rights. It was held every year and over the decades ‘the big meeting’ became the largest unofficial miners and trade union gathering in the UK.

Eventually the deep mines in the North East of England were closed but the Gala has survived as the Region’s mining heritage and attracting tens of thousands of visitors to Durham in July the month in which the Gala is held every year. It symbolizes celebration of a community, international solidarity and working class life.

On the afternoon of the Gala day a Miners’ Festival Service has been held at the Durham Cathedral. New Union and Lodge Banners are dedicated and blessed by the Bishop of Durham.

The pictures and information was sent to us by Ms.Catherine Henderson a Durham resident who has never missed a Gala of the last few decades. She took the Fort Cochin Heritage Walk in 2017 and has stayed a friend since.